Historical Milestones U N I V E R S I T Y O F T H E W E S T E R N C A P E 1 9 5 9–2 0 2 3
1960: UWC opens its doors to its first cohort of 166 students. 1970: The university gains independent status and begins awarding its own degrees and diplomas. 1975: Professor Richard van der Ross is appointed as UWC’s first black Rector.
1995: Prof Cecil Abrahams succeeds Jakes Gerwel as Vice-Chancellor. UWC launches its website – joining the internet age before other universities in the Mother City. UWC launches the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) to engage in research, training, policy development and advocacy in relation to land reform, rural governance and natural resource management.
1978: UWC’s Cape Flats Nature Reserve is declared a National Monument (now known as a provincial heritage site).
2001: Prof Brian O’Connell is appointed UWC Vice-Chancellor.
1987: Professor Jakes Gerwel is appointed Rector and Vice-Chancellor.
2002: UWC averts government attempts to merge it with Peninsula Technikon and retains its autonomy.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is inaugurated as UWC Chancellor, a role he would fulfil for 25 years. 1990: UWC is the first university to award Nelson Mandela an honorary doctorate after his release from prison. 1993: UWC students help launch Bush Radio as a pirate radio station. It was the first community radio station to be licensed in democratic South Africa. 1994: Prof Gerwel is appointed as Director-General in the Office of the Presidency by President Nelson Mandela. The South African interim Constitution and final Constitution are drafted at UWC.
UWC hosts the only Dentistry Faculty in the Western Cape after merging with Stellenbosch University’s School of Oral Health. 2003: In a major boost to research capacity in biotechnology, UWC acquires the first protein X-ray crystallography facility in South Africa. 2005: The UWC Statute is published in the Government Gazette. 2008: The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship is introduced to UWC, promoting an international postgraduate education experience. The first cohort of Fellows is accepted in 2009.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
1959: UWC is established as the University College of the Western Cape, a constituent college of UNISA.
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